Summary

The IMF has released a study analyzing major banking crises from 1970 to 2025. To identify a systemic banking crisis, the IMF uses a set of criteria, including a sharp increase in non-performing loans of more than 20%, significant bank losses, large-scale government support, emergency liquidity provision, or public spending on bank rescues exceeding 5% of GDP. The authors note that over the past 55 years, the world has experienced 164 systemic banking crises. Such crises are generally costly for governments: average fiscal costs related to bank rescues amount to around 6–8% of GDP, while the economic consequences can persist for years. At the same time, the IMF emphasizes that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the sharp rise in inflation and economic instability in recent years, the global banking sector as a whole has proved much more resilient than during the 2008 crisis, largely due to tighter regulation and stronger bank buffers. However, the banking turmoil in the United States and the European Union in 2023 showed how quickly confidence problems and large-scale deposit withdrawals can emerge even in advanced economies. The authors conclude that the key instruments for strengthening banking sector resilience remain Basel III requirements, capital and liquidity buffers, the ability to temporarily release these buffers during a crisis, bank stress testing, expanded mechanisms for emergency liquidity support and earlier regulatory intervention when signs of problems emerge.